On Monday, Oxford Bookstores announced Bhavi Mehta as the winner of the 2024 Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize. She won the prize for designing The Book Beautiful written by Pradeep Sebastian and published by Hachette India. She received a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.

The jury comprised author and Member of Parliament, Shashi Tharoor; author and columnist Shobhaa De; author and academic Kunal Basu; Director of Apeejay Surrendra Group Priti Paul; Director of Institut français in India and Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Action, French Embassy in India, Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens; and Director Information Services South Asia Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Anja Riedeberger. The jury was chaired by museum curator, author and art historian Alka Pande.

In addition to the winning cover, three designers were acknowledged for their remarkable command of graphics and visual narratives. They are Gunjan Ahlawat for The Penguin Book of Indian Poets published by Penguin Random House, Saurav Das for Azad Nagar published by HarperCollins India, and Saurabh Garge for The Adornment of Gods published by Westland Books.

The winning cover.

The other designers on the shortlist were:

  • Ahlawat Gunjan for The Penguin Book of Indian Poets.

  • Saurav Das for Azad Nagar.

  • Saurabh Garge for The Adornment of Gods.

  • Amit Malhotra for Not Quite a Disaster After All.

  • Sashi Bhushan Prasad for When Indian Flowers Bloomed in Europe.

  • Bonita Vaz Shimray for Mystics and Sceptics.